Three fatalities in Hantavirus outbreak on Dutch cruise ship.

Three people have died and a further five people have been infected in an outbreak of Hantavirus on the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius, according to a press release issued by the World Health Organization on 8 May 2026. The disease, which is caused by the Virus Orthohantavirus andesense, is a zoonotic disease (disease with a reserve in a wild Animal population which sometimes spreads to Humans) causing a hemorrhagic or pulmonary fever. It is not easily passed from Human-to-Human, but can do so when people are living together in close conditions in an environment such as a cruise ship.

The outbreak is thought to have begun with an 70-year-old male Dutch national who boarded the ship at Ushuaia, on the Argentinian part of Tierra del Fuego, on 1 April 2026, after spending three months touring Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. This patient developed symptoms at sea, and died on 11 April before the ship reached any port. He is considered a probable case, as no microbiological tests were carried out. 

The MV Hondius, a 106.7 m Polar Class 6 vessel, designed for luxury touring in polar regions with a minimal environmental impact, which was hit by Hantavirus outbreak in April and May 2026. Oceanwide Expeditions.

The second patient to develop the disease was the original patient's 69-year-old widow, who had been travelling with the first patient and joined the ship with him. She developed gastrointestinal symptoms at sea, and left the ship when it arrived at Saint Helena on 24 April, and flew to Johannesburg the following day, where she boarded a flight to Amsterdam, where her condition deteriorated rapidly, causing her to be removed from the plane and moved to a local hospital, where she died on 26 April. She was confirmed as being infected with Orthohantavirus andesense by polymerise chain reaction testing carried out by the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

The third patient, another adult male, started to show symptoms on 24 April, and was evacuated from the ship when it put into Ascension Island on 27 April. This patient was also airlifted to Johannesburg, where he is being treated in an intensive care unit. This patient was also confirmed as being infected with Orthohantavirus andesense by polymerise chain reaction testing.

A fourth patient, and adult female German national, developed a fever on 28 April, while the ship was sailing between Ascension Island and the Cape Verde islands, and died of pneumonia on 2 May, before the ship made it to port. This patient was later confirmed to have died of Hantavirus by post-mortem examination.

The fifth patient, the ship's doctor, began to develop symptoms on 30 April, and was confirmed as having Hantavirus by polymerise chain reaction testing when the ship reached Cape Verde on 6 May, and was airlifted to the Netherlands, where he is currently being treated in an isolation unit. 

The sixth patient, a guide employed on the ship, reported mild respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms on 27 April. He was also diagnosed with Hantavirus infection by polymerise chain reaction testing when the ship reached Cape Verde and airlifted to the Netherlands.

A seventh patient, who disembarked from the ship at St Helena on 22 April and flew home to Switzerland via South Africa and Qatar, began to show symptoms on 1 May. He immediately self-reported to medical authorities in Switzerland, and is now being treated in an isolation unit there.

An eighth patient, who disembarked from the ship at Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic on 14 April, began to show symptoms on 28 April. He is now being treated in isolation, although results of testing for the Virus have yet to be returned.

A ninth patient with Hantavirus-like symptoms was evacuated at Cape Verde and airlifted to Germany, but was later found not to be infected.  Efforts are still being made to trace 32 other patients who disembarked at Saint Helena and dispersed to a variety of countries before the nature of the outbreak was understood. After leaving Cape Verde the ship sailed to the Canary Islands, where it was met by medical personnel from the World Health Organization and a variety of countries, where both passengers and crew were screened for the Virus before being allowed to travel on to their home countries, where they will be required to undergo a period of isolation. A skeleton crew and medical personnel remained on the ship while it was sailed to the Netherlands to be thoroughly disinfected. 

Stops made by the MV Hondius during the outbreak. On 11 May, the ship was en route to Rotterdam. Wikipedia.

A flight attendant on the Johannesburg-Amsterdam flight from which the second patient was removed also later developed symptoms, and was admitted to a hospital in Amsterdam. Two Singaporean nationals who had been on the ship and subsequent flight from Saint Helena to Johannesburg were tested for the Virus after one developed Hantavirus-like symptoms, but neither was found to be infected. Attempts are still being made to trace passengers from both fights.

Hantavirus infections are caused by triple single-stranded negative-sense RNA Viruses of the genus Orthohantavirus. These Viruses are typically found in Rodents, with 28 species known, each of which infects a different species of Rodent. These Viruses occasionally jump species and infect Humans, where they break down into two groups, Old World Hantaviruses, which can cause a hemorrhagic fever accompanied by a severe kidney infection, and New World Hantaviruses, which cause a severe respiratory disease.

Structure of the Andes Hantavirus. Lexi Schoonover/Hope College/Wikimedia Commons.

The Andes Hantavirus, Orthohantavirus andesense, is found in Long-tailed Pygmy Rice Rats, Oligoryzomys longicaudatus, a wild Rodent found in the southern Andes of Chile and Argentina, where it does not appear to produce any symptoms. It can be transmitted to Humans through the inhalation of  aerosols that contain rodent saliva, urine, or feces, through the consumption of contaminated food, or by being bitten or scratched by a Rat.

A Long-tailed Pygmy Rice Rat, Oligoryzomys longicaudatus, the wild vector of the Andes Hantavirus. Yamil Hussain/Wikimedia Commons.

There is no effective treatment or vaccine for Hantavirus, and the disease is best prevented by using cleanliness and good hygiene to keep Rodents from entering Human dwellings or workplaces. If this fails a pest control consultant should be used to remove the Rodents. Placing infected patients in intensive care with fluids and, if necessary, artificial respiration, can help, but even with these precautions about 30% of patients typically die. Patients who have been infected with the disease and survive are generally immune to further infections with the same Virus.

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Three hikers killed by eruption on Mount Dukono

Three hikers were killed in an eruption on Mount Dukono, a 1273 m high volcano on the northern part of Halmahera Island, Indonesia, on Friday 8 May 2026. The three were part of a group of 20 Indonesian and Singaporean hikers which had trekked up the volcano under the leadership of Indonesian tour guide Reza Selang. The hike was undertaken despite a prohibition on climbing the volcano which had been in place since 17 April, due to a high level of volcanic activity. However, Selang claims he was unaware of this prohibition, and was not made aware of it by local villagers he employs as assistants. Local authorities, meanwhile, claim to have posted warnings on social media and place banners at the entrance to trails leading to the volcano.

An ash column over Mount Dukuno on 8 May 2026. Jhon Frengki Manipa/Reuters.

The group ascended the volcano early in the morning, with Selang sending a drone to the volcano's summit to check for volcanic activity, before sending up a group of fourteen hikers under the leadership of Singaporean tour organiser Timothy Heng, who had booked the trip through Selang last year, while Selang remained lower down with the remainder of the group. At about 7.40 Selang sent his drone up again to check on the group, when the volcano underwent two explosive eruptions in rapid succession, the first producing only smoke, but the second ejecting large volumes of ash, rock, and other debris. 

The group on the mountain scattered and ran downhill in response to this, though Selang reports seeing one man, Singaporean Shahin Muhrez bin Abdul Hamid lying on the ground near the crater. He states that he then ascended the summit along with Heng, who had escaped the initial blast, with the two of them attempting to rescue the injured man. During this attempt both Singaporeans were hit and killed by a large rock, with only Selang escaping.

Selang and the majority of the group made it back to the base of the mountain, where they discovered another person was missing, Indonesian Angel Krishela Pradita. They then notified the local authorities, who sent out a rescue team, who later recovered the bodies of all three missing hikers. The survivors were treated for injuries at a local hospital.

Rescue workers recovering the body of one of the hikers killed on Mount Dukono on 8 May 2026. Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Bencana.

Dukono is one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes, having been erupting more-or-less continuously since 1933. Eruptions most frequently take the form of ash explosions and sulphur dioxide plumes, with lave flows also being reasonably common. The volcano also went a major eruptive phase in the mid sixteenth century, as well as shorter episodes in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries.

The Halmahera Islands arc a volcanic arc; formed where one tectonic plate is being subducted beneath another, with the underlying plate being melted by the heat of the Earth's interior, and lighter minerals bubbling up through the overlying plate to form volcanoes. However the Halmahera Islands are unusual in that they lie on a double subduction zone. The underlying plate, a northeaster extension of the Molucca Plate, is being overridden form the Philippine Plate from the east and the Eurasian Plate from the west. The Halmahera volcanoes are located where the Philippine Plate is overriding the Molucca Plate; to the west the Sangihe Islands lie where the Molucca Plate is being overridden by the Eurasian Plate.

Diagrammatic representation of the subduction zones beneath Halmahera (middle), plus the Philippines (top) and Sulawesi (bottom), with the Eurasian Plate to the left, the Molucca Sea Plate in the middle, and the Philippine Plate to the right.  Hall & Wilson (2000).

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Four fishermen killed by Hippopotamuses by Lake Naivasha, Kenya.

Four members of a group of ten fishermen have been killed after being attacked by Hippopotamuses by Lake Naivasha in Kenya on Friday 2 January 2025. The group, who have been described as local youths, approached the lake after dark as they lacked fishing permits, and are thought to have disturbed a group of Hippos with calves. Six of the party were able to escape by entering the water and swimming, or by climbing trees. One of the deceased is described as having initially escaped, but to have returned in an attempt to rescue a friend. 

Hippopotamuses by Lake Naivasha, Kenya. The Sunday Standard.

Lake Naivasha is noted for undergoing marked variations in its depth, and therefore extent. Water levels in the lake dropped continuously during the first half of the twentieth century, falling to 60 cm in 1945, then rose steadily for over two decades, reaching 6 m in 1968. The waters then fell until 1987, when the lake was only 2.25 m deep, but have been trending upwards since this time, causing the land to expand, swamping low lying villages and farmland, something which has accelerated in recent years as warming global temperatures have led to increased rainfall in East Africa.

One upshot of this that the lake naturally contains no commercially harvestable fish, probably as a result of drying up on occasions in the past. Non-native fish have been introduced to the lake in order to create a commercial fishery, but this has proven difficult to manage, with a dramatic fish-population crash fuelled by overfishing in 2001 leading to the introduction of strict fishing regulations on the lake.

This has created in a fish stock available to commercial fishing companies, and foreign tourists, but not to local villagers, resulting in frequent attempts to circumnavigate the regulations, for example by fishing at night. This has become more of a problem as the lake has expanded, swallowing up farmland and leaving the local population looking for other sources of sustenance. The expansion of the commercial flower growing industry, which earns the nation hard currency but also takes up farmland in the Rift Valley around lakes such as Naivasha and employs a relatively low number of people, has also tended to push people towards illicit economic activities such as night fishing, as well as fuelling conflict between Humans and aquatic wildlife such as Hippopotamuses and Crocodiles.

Flooding in a community beside Lake Naivasha in November 2025. Tony Karumba/AFP.

While Hippos can appear benign to people unfamiliar to them, they are generally considered to be one of the most dangerous Animals in Africa, and probably the world. Hippopotamuses are the largest land Mammals after Elephants and Rhinoceroses, as well as being the closest terrestrial relatives of Whales. Adult Hippos typically weigh about 1.4 tonnes (males tend to be slightly larger than females, but this is marginal, and the sex of Hippos can be hard to differentiate). Hippos can open their mouths to almost 110°, and their jaws are highly muscled, allowing them to slap there mouths shut abruptly, driving canine and incisor teeth that can be 50 cm long into anything which offends them. This weapon is primarily used in intraspecific fights particularly between the males, which are highly territorial. However, they are also notoriously aggressive towards other species, particularly Humans, possibly as a result as having evolved alongside Pliocene and Pleistocene hunting Hominids. Hippopotamuses tend to stay in the water during the day, lowering the threat they present to Humans, but come out of the water to graze at night, when they are generally considered to be at their most dangerous.

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Seven known deaths following avalanche on Mount Yalung Ri, Nepal.

Seven people are known to have died and another four are missing following an avalanche on Mount Yalung Ri in the Rolwaling Himal Mountain Range (part of the Wider Himalayas) in east-central Nepal, close to the Tibetan border. The event happened at about 8.30 am local time on Monday 3 November 2025, shortly after the party had left a base camp at 4900 m to ascend the 5630 m peak. The known dead comprise two Nepalese mountain guides, plus five foreign tourists, two Italians, a Canadian, a German, and a Frenchman. Four more Nepalese mountain guides, and another two French tourists (one of whom is understood to have been the wife of the deceased French national) survived, but had to be airlifted to a hospital in Kathmandu to be treated for a variety of injuries. All four of the missing climbers are described as experienced Nepalese mountain guides, familiar with high-altitude conditions.

The location of Yalung Ri. Google Maps.

Avalanches are caused by the mechanical failure of snowpacks; essentially when the weight of the snow above a certain point exceeds the carrying capacity of the snow at that point to support its weight. This can happen for two reasons, because more snow falls upslope, causing the weight to rise, or because snow begins to melt downslope, causing the carrying capacity to fall. Avalanches may also be triggered by other events, such as Earthquakes or rockfalls. Contrary to what is often seen in films and on television, avalanches are not usually triggered by loud noises. Because snow forms layers, with each layer typically occurring due to a different snowfall, and having different physical properties, multiple avalanches can occur at the same spot, with the failure of a weaker layer losing to the loss of the snow above it, but other layers below left in place - to potentially fail later.

Diagrammatic representation of an avalanche, showing how layering of snow contributes to these events. Expedition Earth.

Yalung Ri is generally considered to be a 'safe' mountain for inexperienced climbers, and the team hit by the avalanche had been scaling it as part of a training exercise ahead of an attempt on the more challenging, 6334 m Dorma Kang. However, Nepal has been hit by particularly high snowfalls this autumn, linked to Cyclone Montha, which hit the coast of Andhra Pradesh, India, on Tuesday 28 October. This has led to a series of snowfall related events, and has led many high-altitude communities in Nepal to move to lower locations temporarily. One of the surviving tourists on Yalung Ri has complained that, despite calling for help, rescue workers did not reach them till some time after the avalanche, something which rescue workers have attributed to poor weather conditions, which prevented a helicopter from approaching the mountain.

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Woman and child confirmed dead in Finland avalanche.

A woman and her twelve-year-old son have been confirmed dead following an avalanche at Pyhäkuru slope in the Pallastunturi Fells of Finnish Lapland on Tuesday 2 January 2024. The pair, who have not been named, but have been identified as having come from the town of Korsnäs in Ostrobothnia, 700 km to the south, called for help from Lappland Rescue Service after getting into trouble with high winds and extreme cold, but when they arrived at the site there were no signs of the two. Attempts to locate them were hampered by high winds (about 40 m per second), extreme cold (about -23°C at the time of the incident), and limited light conditions (the Sun rose in the region on Friday 5 January for the first time in a month, earlier in the week light was limited to about five hours of twilight per day). The body of the woman was found by a Lapland Police Department rescue team at about 10.00 pm on the day of the avalanche, that of the boy was not recovered until the morning of Thursday 4 January.

(Top) Conditions on Pyhäkuru slope on Tuesday 2 January 2024. Antte Lauhamaa/Lappland Police Department/Yle. (Bottom) Pyhäkuru slope on Wednesday 3 January. Otto Ponto/Helsingin Sanomat.

Avalanches are caused by the mechanical failure of snowpacks; essentially when the weight of the snow above a certain point exceeds the carrying capacity of the snow at that point to support its weight. This can happen for two reasons, because more snow falls upslope, causing the weight to rise, or because snow begins to melt downslope, causing the carrying capacity to fall. Avalanches may also be triggered by other events, such as Earthquakes or rockfalls. Contrary to what is often seen in films and on television, avalanches are not usually triggered by loud noises. Because snow forms layers, with each layer typically occurring due to a different snowfall, and having different physical properties, multiple avalanches can occur at the same spot, with the failure of a weaker layer losing to the loss of the snow above it, but other layers below left in place - to potentially fail later.

Diagrammatic representation of an avalanche, showing how layering of snow contributes to these events. Expedition Earth.

Pyhäkuru slope is popular with freeskiers, but local residents consider it to be extremely dangerous in bad weather. In high winds loose snow from the surrounding area can pile up against the side of the slope, making it appear much less steep than it actually is, but this snow is only loosely packed, and will easily give way if people venture onto it, making skier-induced avalanches a frequent problem.

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